"Improve your chess by learning time-tested strategies and tactics. Learn about the most common tactical motifs, the fundamentals of chess strategy, popular openings, and important endgame concepts. It's all very important and may give you an advantage in your next game. Common Chess Tactics Tactics are short-term calculated sequences of moves resulting in checkmate, the win of material, or some other gain. An understanding of tactics is crucial to playing good chess. Most games, especially at the club level, are decided by tactical mistakes. Learning the basic tactics in chess will help you in two ways. It will let you take advantage of your opponent's mistakes while avoiding your own. There are four basic tactics that every chess player should know. Fool's Mate - This is the fastest way to a checkmate and it capitalizes on a few key mistakes by your opponent. Forks - Knights are the best pieces for 'forks' because they can take out two opposing pieces in one move. However, every piece on the board has forking ability. Pins - You can also 'pin' your opponent's pieces in and you can use your queen, rooks, and bishops to pull of this powerful move. Skewers - Just the opposite, a 'skewer' is when you force a valuable piece to move and at the same time your rival leaves a lesser piece vulnerable to attack. Choose Your Strategy No chess player can calculate an entire chess game from beginning to end. Even the best computer programs running on the fastest hardware can only ""see"" a limited number of moves ahead. Beyond what we can calculate, we must rely on strategy to guide us in finding the best plans and moves in a given position. Chess strategy includes a wide range of concepts, from how to value the pieces to evaluating a position. Mastering these principles will greatly improve your understanding of chess. For instance, your bishops are quite powerful and can be one your best pieces for both defense and offense."
